At a lewse end

Two weeks ago I sat down with my direct-report manager to look at leave balances, and it came out that if I didn’t take some serious time off before the end of the year, I was going to hand the Empire back about four days of personal leave and three days of vacation.  (The Empire doesn’t allow you to roll ANY leave—personal or vacation—over from one year to the next.  “Use it or lose it” with a vengeance.)  My manager though it was plain foolish to do that, so he sat me down and reviewed who else on the team would be off when during the holidays, to see if I could use up the leave I had remaining.  (I had previously written off all the leave in my mind, since I hadn’t requested any time off in early November, when I should have done.)

When we finished, it was agreed that I would take off the 16th through the 23rd, and I’ll have less than half a day I have to give back on the 31st.  So I unexpectedly have all this free time in the run-up to Christmas Eve, and if anyone local wants to go do something, call me and we’ll see what we can work out.  M will be home with me starting Monday, but by now she’s old enough not to mind staying home for an hour or two by herself, as long as it’s light and I’m within phone call.

Five spells are intended to protect the dead from snakes.  Fnord.